Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board Minister T.M. Anbarasan on Tuesday chaired a meeting with senior officials and MLAs from many constituencies in Chennai to discuss the projects to demolish and reconstruct old and dilapidated tenements of the Board in the city.
The Minister later told The Hindu that around 23,000 tenements had been earmarked for reconstruction in the city, of which the work for 7,500 tenements would be commenced this financial year.
“The preliminary work has already commenced in many of these sites,” he said.
He added that another 10,000 tenements would be taken up for reconstruction in the next financial year.
He said that the MLAs were advised to work closely with the officials and the residents of the tenements in their respective constituencies in explaining to the latter the need to reconstruct the buildings and in addressing the concerns raised by them.
The Board was facing some resistance from a section of residents of tenements in areas like Mandaveli and Chetpet that have been earmarked for reconstruction.
Apart from difficulties surrounding temporary relocation, the residents have particularly raised objections to the Board’s decision to build high rise buildings instead of the three or four storey structures that exist now.
Mr. Anbarasan said that the allowance provided by the government to assist the residents in relocation has been increased. “We have also brought down the money they need to pay for allocation of houses in the reconstructed buildings along with easy instalment options,” he said.
He said that administrative changes within the Board were also under way towards effective implementation and monitoring of the construction projects.
MLAs from Mylapore, Egmore, Villivakkam, Thousand Lights, T. Nagar, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Royapuram, Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar and Anna Nagar constituencies took part in the meeting.
